Struggles and Troubles
by Unnoticed Bitch
Summary: It is not easy being an awkward, shy teenage girl. Not to mention nerdy. Why and how would her crush want Bella? She doesn't have a faintest idea to be seductive. And when her crush comments on a photo on Facebook praising her FRIEND, she is crushed. Would he EVER notice her? This is the series of struggles and troubles in Bella, a teenager's life.


**Disclaimer – All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. This plot belongs to Unnoticed Bitch. No copyright infringement intended.**

**Struggles and Troubles**

**Chapter - 1**

Bella hadn't realized that her luck would be so….so….awful. She had thought she would totally get Edward Cullen's attention, the hottest guy of the school and her crush since forever after changing her Display Picture on Facebook. And even if she wouldn't get his attention, she did have a major self confidence boost. She thought she looked awesome in a gauche kind of a way as she smiled shyly at the camera sitting beside her ex best friend and current frenemy, Alice. The occasion was Alice's 16th birthday bash in the photo, and they had decided to have a Girl's Night Out and celebrate by eating and shopping in a mall. Bella's best friend Angela, Alice's Cousin Charlotte and Bella's and Alice's common good friend Rosalie had attended it. There were, however, only Alice and Bella in Bella's display picture. Alice was sticking her tongue out and Bella was smiling bashfully.

Well, the photo was very cute, actually. Likes had already started coming as soon as she had put it up on her profile after Alice has insisted that Bella should put it up as her profile picture. This was a good ego boost, really. Her earlier display pictures hadn't received more than 28 likes but the current picture had more than 40. Bella had _thought_ that since it was _her_ profile picture, the people liking it would do so because of _her_. That was a reasonable thing to expect, no? So why did _Edward Cullen_, _her_ crush had commented on _her_ photo saying – **Alice your sense of dressing is without any doubt fabulous. You look stunning**.

This was _so_ unfair. She had been ecstatic when she had read, '**Edward Cullen commented on your photo**.' She had hoped that finally, _finally_ Edward had noticed her after all these years. Oh, how cruelly her hoped had been shattered!

Bella had believed that she looked rather good in her full sleeved dark green button – down shirt and maroon jeggings with her shoulder length brunette hair flowing in the air. But now she observed her display picture minutely. It was not as if she did not look okay, but the girl sitting beside her had stolen all the limelight.

Alice looked stunning and happy go lucky in her short, white lace dress and intricately styled hair. Bella's hair was not even shampooed. Bella couldn't match Alice's charm even after she looked her best.

Now, she did not like to think that she was a girl with low self - esteem. She was thinking all this because she was a girl with _injured_ self – esteem. Her self – confidence wasn't low, but the truth was the truth, and she had realized the truth the hard way, that is, after Edward's comment.

But still, whatever be the truth, Edward had no right to do that. It was extraordinarily rude of him to comment on someone else's picture without even mentioning one word about the owner, even though he knew only Alice. She had known that the adolescent guys were assholes, but she hadn't expected him to be like that. He had that old – world charm and was gifted with the good looks of those times too! He was courteous in his manners, and had humble speaking skills. Bella was struck on him because of all these things more than his looks. Also, he had something deliciously bad about him despite all this. Bella knew this by just looking at his mischievous crooked smile. It was like he had something dirty going in his brain. But never in a million years had she suspected him to be an asshole. Guess she was wrong.

According to her personal experience, guys of this age were jerks. Edward was no exception. When she was fourteen, she had sort of liked Riley Biers of her grade. He was one of the _bad_ guys, and that had appealed to her terribly. He was okay looking, but Bella was extremely attracted to his unabashed body language. Since Bella was frail as a child and was anaemic, her _chest _hadn't developed much. So her friends called her all sorts of name, ranging from flat screen, LCD TV to late bloomer. Usually, she found those words extremely funny. But there was a different thing when your _friends_ call you that and the _person you like_ call you that. Riley had teased her by saying, "Hey Bella! I _do_ think you are extremely pretty. But don't you think that you are like a tower? Straight up and down? No boobs…..no ass…are you _sure_ you are a girl?" What was worse? He had said all that loudly before his friends! All of them had laughed boisterously and Bella had cried her eyes out the whole night. Since that day, she was under the impression that guys her age were shallow and she wouldn't think twice before stabbing Riley Biers repeatedly with a dagger.

Surely, Edward Cullen was no exception to the whole Adolescent – guys – are – Assholes rule. Her major concern was related to her self - esteem. It had been injured again and she would have some quality me – time during the weekend. Bella hated those shy girls with low self – esteem, and she certainly wasn't one of them!

PS - She liked to believe _that_ even thought her teachers constantly wrote, "Soft spoken and shy" in her report card.

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Usually, her heart always pounded when Edward came and sat next to her in Sociology, but today, she was too resentful at his lack of basic courtesy. He could have written, "Nice picture!" or simply, "Cool" as comment so why did he have to mention Alice? So what if Alice was cuter? Bella was….well surely not cute…..but _mature _looking! Ugh!

She didn't glance at him once as he scraped the chair backwards and sat down. Secretly, there were two reasons. Reason number one was obvious, reason number two was embarrassing. After remembering her past with Riley last night, she was busy hiding her chest, her _flat_ chest from him. Ugh, she _still_ didn't need a bra, but she wore it any way. To keep up with the times.

The teacher had asked about an assignment that no one cared to submit and now was lecturing about how culture played an important part in Socialization. No one was paying attention, but Bella was. Because if she would not pay attention, she would start paying attention to the guy next to her that she desperately wanted to forget. But the lecture was much too boring, and her mouth, with a mind of its own, blurted out to him, "Alice says thank you." a bit petulantly.

"What?" he was staring out of the window. Bella glanced at him. He looked delicious and out of her league as usual. She sighed.

"Alice says thank you for your comment praising her dressing skills on my Display Picture." Alice hadn't said anything, of course, but Bella wanted Edward to know what a blunder he had done.

"If Alice says thank you…" he answered in his flawless voice, "….then why doesn't she come to me and have the courtesy to tell me that?" Was he hitting on Alice? NO. WAY.

"_Look_ who is talking of courtesy?" Bella snorted. She was realizing now that she was behaving like Jessica, a girl who was very desperate and talked with overdone familiarity with the popular people.

"What do you mean?" he asked, finally looking at her, fixing her with his emerald eyes. It was unnerving.

"Nothing at all." She sighed, looking away and muttered, "Asshole."

"Excuse me?" he gaped at her, "What have I done to deserve that title?" Shit! He heard the expletive.

"Ask me what you have _not_ done to deserve that title." She fretted. "You know, I thought you would be different. But you are the same. You are one of them! No basic courtesy, no manners, ugh! What is wrong with the youth of today?"

_Please, Bella! Stop this right now!_

"Care to share what you are gossiping about, Ms Swan?" Mr Banner asked loudly, causing heads to turn her way. Bella was red. Unlike other kids, attention brought out the worst in her. Though she felt it was her chance to distract Edward from her insane rambling. She glanced at her wristwatch, only one minute left for the period to get over.

She stood up. "I was not gossiping, sir. I was telling him that how the youth of today are completely disregarding the culture which is a very important part of socialization."

"How so, Ms Swan?" _Damn!_

"Uh….I believe that the culture has evolved….and …."

"But you were not talking about evolution of culture, do you?" Banner pig cross questioned Bella.

"I am talking about it now!" she snapped. "I mean, look at the way the youth behaves on Facebook! OH! Not on Facebook! OH! Not on Facebook! But they have really lost their courtesy…." Bella was literally sweating and squirming now. Mr Banner kept on staring at her, and the whole class too. She has successfully made a blithering fool of herself. She was trying her best to ignore the stares, especially her bench mate's.

_Way to go, Bella! THIS is how you would get him to notice you? _

Thankfully, the bell rang, bringing her out of her misery. She quickly leaned down, grabbed the strap of her bag and ran down out of the class, tripping on the way.

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"So?" Alice was staring at the apple in her hand, giving it her undivided attention. This was Alice's usual style to talk to people, unless she had a favour to ask for. "What did you say to Edward in Sociology?"

Alice, Bella, and Angela sat together in the cafeteria. Rosalie wasted the entire recess with her new found boyfriend Emmett, who was nothing but lumps of muscles and a big grin. It was hard not to be a little nervous around him. So she rarely talked with him.

"Nothing. I did nothing. Why do you ask me that?"

"Jessica told me that you were talking to him about something. And he was gaping at you."

Damn Jessica! Damn her to hell!

"I was asking about an extra pen."

"And why was he gaping at you, then?"

"Because he didn't have one."

"So why did he gaped?"

Bella groaned. "You are not my mom, okay? So stop with the fucking inquisition."

Alice stuck her tongue out but then her brow furrowed as she looked behind Bella with concentration.

"Alice, if you want to ogle Jasper then do you mind doing it a bit subtly?"

Alice said, "It's Edward I am staring at." Bella's heart fluttered after hearing Edward's name. "Why is he staring at _you_?"

Bella ignored the insult and turned her head back. Sure enough, he was staring at her. She quickly turned her face away.

This was not the kind of stare she wanted. He was looking at her with a frustrated expression on his face. Not with a lust or longing or whatsoever. Bella wanted to slap her forehead. What had she done? _Why_ was she so impulsive? At least he didn't think of her as a lunatic person up till yesterday. Today, she was getting her wish fulfilled – about him noticing her – but with a price. She wanted him to forget her completely now. There was no use getting involved with him. He would never understand how deep her feelings were regarding him.

"Never mind Alice." She told her. "I am not interested. Teenage guys are assholes anyway."


End file.
